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Homers Gesänge

English translation: Homer's Epics

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:Homers Gesänge
English translation:Homer's Epics
Entered by: i8a4re

23:05 Feb 22, 2004
German to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature
German term or phrase: Homers Gesänge
Hi all,

Anyone know what Homer's "Gesänge" are called in English? The Iliad, for example, was divided into 24 "Gesänge", but from all I can find, these only ever seem to be called sections or books.

My sentence is as follows:
"Das und nur das unterscheidet solche modernen Alphabete vom vertrauten, das unsere Sprachen ja zwar auseinanderlegte und Homers Gesänge schenkte, aber keine Technikwelt zum Laufen bringt wie heutzutage Computercode."

TIA for any enlightenment y'all can offer.
i8a4re
Local time: 09:02
Homer's (Homeric) Epics
Explanation:
Homer's songs are generally considered "epics" in scholarly research.
Selected response from:

Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 03:02
Grading comment
Went for this because it implies a certain grandiosity. Thanks all for your help!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +3book
Elvira Stoianov
3 +3Homeric songs
Kim Metzger
2 +2cantos
Cilian O'Tuama
4Homer's (Homeric) Epics
Kevin Fulton
3Homeric Hymns
ArchyR


  

Answers


3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
Homers Gesänge
book


Explanation:
it seems that they are indeed called Books. I think the link has a complete version


    Reference: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~joelja/iliad.html
Elvira Stoianov
Luxembourg
Local time: 09:02
Native speaker of: Native in RomanianRomanian, Native in HungarianHungarian
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kim Metzger: Book is almost always used.
10 mins
agree  Giusi Pasi: referring to Homer's works they are books.
28 mins
agree  Chris Rowson (X)
13 hrs
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8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +2
cantos


Explanation:
I think, not sure though

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2004-02-22 23:15:41 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Gesang m (Singen) singing; Musik vocal music; als Fach: voice; (Lied) song; (Teil einer Dichtung) canto, book; Gesang studieren study voice (bei with)
Langenscheidt

canto: one of the major divisions of a long poem (Merriam-Webster)


Cilian O'Tuama
Germany
Local time: 09:02
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 31

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kim Metzger: Usually in reference to Dante's Inferno, but the books are sometimes called cantos. http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/titles/tget.cgi?1245.html@...
5 mins
agree  Ellen Zittinger
1 hr
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21 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
Homers Gesänge
Homeric songs


Explanation:
LITERATURE has specific, practical uses or powers. The Iliad and the Odyssey share first prize for the power of memory or presenting the past. More than 30,000 lines of these ancient Homeric songs survive today. Yet, many scholars believe, these verses originally were sung or recited from memory in live performance.

http://24.24.31.212/literature/POL-HS-Orientation.htm


Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 01:02
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 213

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Lucien Marcelet: yes Kim, that's it.
24 mins
agree  Mario Marcolin: The songs and/or their style/meter...
8 hrs
agree  Alexander Onishko
10 hrs
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4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Homer's (Homeric) Epics


Explanation:
Homer's songs are generally considered "epics" in scholarly research.


    Reference: http://www.mythweb.com/odyssey/
    Reference: http://www.temple.edu/classics/epic.html
Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 03:02
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Went for this because it implies a certain grandiosity. Thanks all for your help!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

2 days 1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Homeric Hymns


Explanation:
Thelma Sargent's book The Homeric Hymns, Foreword: The Homeric Hymns are a collection of anonymous poems of varying length and quality celebrating the gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon and composed for the most part around the seventh century B.C. They are in the oral tradition of bardic poetry, with the stately six-foot measures of dactylic hexameter, the meter of the great epics of Homer." Even though they are assumed not to be created by Homer, they are still known as the Homeric Hymns.

ArchyR
Local time: 00:02
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
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